Typically, in an inserting machine for mass mailing, there is a gathering section where enclosure material is gathered before it is inserted into an envelope. This gathering section is sometimes referred to as a chassis subsystem, which includes a gathering transport with pusher fingers rigidly attached to a conveyor belt and a plurality of enclosure feeders mounted above the transport. If the enclosure material contains many documents, these documents must be separately fed from different enclosure feeders. After all the released documents are gathered, they are put into a stack to be inserted into an envelope in an inserting station. Envelopes are fed to the inserting station one at a time, and each envelope is placed on a platform facing down with its flap flipped back all the way.
An insertion system includes apparatus which positively opens envelopes and hold the envelopes open, thereby greatly reducing the amount of drag on the insert material and assuring that the insert material is reliably inserted into the waiting envelope. The waiting envelope is supported in a substantially horizontal plane with its back panel situated above its front panel and the envelope flap in its open position and substantially in the plane of the front panel. A pair of hold-down fingers presses the envelope flap from above against the inboard ends of respective pivotable paddles having an interior leg and an exterior leg angled out of the plane of the interior leg, to cause the flap to be bowed downwardly. This causes the rear panel to pop upwardly, thereby opening the envelope ready for an insert or insert collation to be inserted.
Typically, mechanical fingers or vacuum suction devices are used to keep the front side of the envelope on the platform while the throat on the back side of the envelope is pulled upward to open the envelope. The stack of enclosure material is than automatically inserted into the opened envelope. In this configuration the envelope fingers are fixed so as to be positioned to open only one size or type of envelope such as Number 10 business sized envelopes. Or alternatively, the fingers are adjustable by an operator. However, operator adjustment can be performed improperly and lead to jamming and improper opening. Additionally, operator adjustment is time consuming and most times needs to be performed each time an envelope size is changed.
Thus, one of the problems of the prior art is that a system is not available which can accurately identify the various envelope throat profiles and automatically adjust the envelope opening mechanism. Therefore, a system and method for detecting envelope throat profiles is needed which provides information to an inserting machine or other mail handling equipment for automated adjustment of envelope opening subsystem so as to accommodate opening of various sized envelopes.